Jobs prescription

The bioscience and pharmaceutical industries have launched a national skills development plan in an effort to boost the number of high-quality UK recruits available to companies operating in the sectors.

The initiative will help businesses to co-operate at national and regional levels and engage with organisations such as universities and professional bodies to help plug what is feared to be a serious skills gap.

Research by

, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing, revealed that four out of 10 bio/pharma companies are experiencing so-called 'hard to fill' vacancies.

Alarmingly for an area that is seen as vital to the UK's future technology economy, a quarter of firms said a lack of skilled people was preventing them from expanding. Skilled staff from India, eastern Europe and Malaysia have been employed by many companies to fill the gaps, but employers are worried that this is a dwindling option as domestic demand in those areas increases and UK work permits become harder to obtain.